Hospital beds include a variety of types of mattresses that may have inflatable portions or may be filled with three dimensional engineered material, traditional foam, or other suitable fill material. Hospital beds are often articulatable; for example, the head and/or foot sections may be raised or lowered. In addition, hospital beds often include features directed to the prevention/treatment of decubitus ulcers (bedsores), and/or therapies such as pulmonary rotational therapy, or percussion/vibration therapy. Additionally, it is known to use inflatable mattresses with a variety of inflatable cell/zone structures.
Exemplary hospital beds and mattresses are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,413 to Goodwin, U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,079 to Hakamiun et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,269,504 to Romano et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,926,884 to Biggie et al., which are all assigned to the assignee of the present invention and all of which are expressly incorporated by reference herein.